Proposed City Redistricting Maps Move to Council

The city's 21-member Redistricting Commission has released its final maps after hearing citizen testimony at a series of public hearings.

The commission received a spectrum of suggestions from the community in Hollywood. Some residents asked the commission to , while those in the. Ultimately, the commission's recommended map keeps Hollywood within three Council Districts and shifts a portion of the Hollywood Hills into a neighboring district.

Most of Hollywood is included in Council District 4, represented by Councilman Tom LaBonge and Council District 13, represented by Councilman Eric Garcetti. A portion of the Hollywood Hills in Council District 5, represented by Councilman Paul Koretz, will move into District 4. District 5, in Hollywood, shrinks to a sliver of land with 778 residents. (See the attached maps for details.)

• Click here for the final redistricting report.
• Click here for new redistricting maps.

City Council President Herb Wesson has released a schedule for three public hearings to gather input on new council district boundaries recommended by the 21-member Redistricting Commission.

The City Council's Rules & Elections Committee, which is chaired by Wesson, will hold an initial hearing on Friday, followed by public hearings on March 5 in San Pedro, March 6 in Van Nuys and March 7 downtown.

The schedule calls for the full City Council to hold a final hearing on the maps on March 16.

"This review process includes opportunities for council members to propose revisions to the maps submitted by the redistricting commissions," Wesson wrote in a letter to City Clerk June Lagmay. "Expeditious adoption of any district changes is necessary to allow the City Attorney and Bureau of Engineering to prepare the final technical documents and ordinances necessary to implement any adopted changes in a timely manner."

The commission last week approved new council district boundaries that angered some neighborhood and community groups, including some in Koreatown, Westchester and Toluca Lake.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has been highly critical of the Redistricting Commission, called the schedule compressed and said "it will not allow the public to participate at the commission level."

Perry introduced a motion last week asking for a more robust public hearing process than the one proposed by Wesson, including public input time scheduled for each council district and a "racially polarized voting analysis."

"I'm extremely concerned that my motion will not see the light of day," Perry said.

Perry and Councilman Bernard Parks, who lost lucrative parts of their districts and had their homes cut out of their current districts, have threatened legal action to block the new maps from going into effect.

"A lawsuit cannot succeed if it has no merit," Wesson spokesman Ed Johnson said in response to a question about how a court challenge would affect the process.

Perry's request for a racial voting analysis "seems to express a conclusion reached before the process has run its course and the final product considered," Johnson said.

The new maps gave the lion's share of Perry's downtown district to Councilman Jose Huizar and moved Baldwin Hills from Parks' district to Wesson's. The commission also moved the University of Southern California out of Parks' district into Perry's.

— City News Service contributed to this report.